The Quakes had 3 picks in the 2012 SuperDraft. In their first pick they selected a Generation Adidas forward from UC Santa Barbara, Sam Garza (seen above), with the No. 6 overall pick. The team picked up Jacob Hustedt, midfielder, from the University of Washington with the 25th pick (6th in round 2) and Chris Blais, goalkeeper, from the University of South Florida with the 33rd pick (14th in round 2).

The San Jose Earthquakes took a step toward fortifying their back line Wednesday by agreeing to a deal with Honduran centerback Victor Bernardez.

Bernardez, 29, has 52 caps for Honduras. He started in all of Honduras' games during this past summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup and was also a member of the country's World Cup team in 2010.

Whaaaaaaat?! 2 posts in 2 days? What's going on?

Yeah, as soon as I make my triumphant return to blogging, some big news drops 2 hours after I update and post. Oh well. The Quakes released their protected list last night and some interesting names are on the list and off the list. We'll look at the lists after the jump.

Who will be saved and who will be left unprotected for San Jose? (Getty Images)

I am back on the expansion draft list bandwagon this afternoon. I've been working here and there this week on compiling several club's lists. Currently I am only working on teams that are eliminated from playoff contention though next week we'll have plenty more as teams fail to advance in the post season will be up to eight and then up to 12 when the wildcard round ends.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. With their postseason hopes officially over, the New England Revolution's final three games won't be just about finishing the season with pride. The final three weeks of the season are expected to be a trial period for players, especially with so much overhaul expected after a lackluster campaign.

Woot! Woot!

All aboard! And away we go.... (yes, you'll see this image a few more times this year.)

All aboard the Perlaza MEGABUS!

Three matches all with playoff implication.

FC Vollkswagen vs. FC Corona as Charlie Davies, DeRo and friends (minus Pontius) hope that games-in-hand are a blessing not a curse down the stretch.

That was embarrassing wasn't it?

San Jose is, essentially, a one man team. Take away Chris Wondolowski and you are looking at TFC levels of ineptitude. The Fire let that one man run all over the place and be a holy terror all night long. Don't get me wrong Wondo is a very good player who does that to a lot of teams.

Well, the Quakes' 11 game winless streak continued after last night's 2-0 loss to the Galaxy. The Quakes have now not won in the last 12 games, since their 4-2 win against DC United on June 24. Los Angeles' newest signing, Robbie Keane, opened the scoring in the 21st minute and Mike Magee, who stymied the Quakes in July while in goal, put the nail in the coffin in the 90th minute.

The Quakes host DC United at Buck Shaw stadium tomorrow night at 7:30 pm. The Quakes are on a 7 game winless streak and are coming off a disappointing thumping against Real Salt Lake. They currently sit 12th in the league table, two spots out of playoff contention. DC United are trying to make the playoffs as well, but are much closer to making it into the top 3 of the East than the Quakes are in the West.

San Jose will look to avenge the 3-0 drubbing New York gave to the Quakes earlier this season. For the first time this season Frank Yallop will be able to pair Wondolowski with Lenhart and Dawkins. The Quakes are taking the previous loss to heart and are energized to put in a grand performance for a grand stadium.

Brandon McDonald has been traded to DC United for an undisclosed amount of allocation money. The 25 year old central defender joined the Quakes in 2009 after being drafted by the Los Angeles Galaxy. Over 2 and a half season with the Quakes McDonald played in 58 matches, scored 3 goals and had 3 assists.

It's been a topsy-turvy run for Clarence Goodson on the USMNT. Goodson, who played at the University of Maryland in the midfield nonetheless, has been largely enigmatic for Bob Bradley in a US kit.

Clarence Goodson against Colombia, October 2010.

It was 2009 that Goodson got some run after a Jimmy Conrad injury at the Gold Cup.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The San Jose Earthquakes lost Ike Opara to a season-ending foot injury last year, and they received a brief scare on Thursday when Opara picked up a knock to that same left foot.

Opara injured his foot during Thursday's training session, and limped off slowly under his own power.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Johnson

D Segares, Cuesta, Gibbs, Ristic

M Pappa, Paladini, Pause, Oduro

F Chaves, Nazirit

Bench : Conway, Pantazopoulos, Robinson, Bone, Husidic, Barouch, Puerari

Earthquakes

GK Busch

D Convey, Hernandez, Opara, Beitashour

M Corales, Stephenson, Ring, Gjertsen

F Lenhart, Wondolowski

Bench : Weber, Burling, McDonald, Ampaipitakwong, Cronin, Morrow, McLoughlin

The Fire is hoping that Tuesday's penalty kick victory over the Earthquakes will serve as a spring board to a reversal of fortunes. Despite advancing to the US Open Cup tournament for a fourteenth consecutive season the Fire are still winless in their last eight MLS regualr season matches. After a difficult start of the their own, winning only once in their first eight matches, San Jose has won it's last two at home against Columbus and New England allowing them to crawl back towards respectability.

The Earthquakes kept their second half scoring trend alive by scoring 2 beautiful goals against New England Saturday night for their second win in a row. The Quakes are now 2-2-2 at home. The recent good home form will hopefully translate into another win at home tomorrow night as San Jose takes on Chicago in the Final Qualifying match for a US Open Cup berth.

The New England Revolution failed to extend their shutout streak or their unbeaten streak Saturday night when they lost 2-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium. Ellis McLoughlin and Bobby Convey were the scorers for the Quakes while Chris Tierney's first goal of the season earned the Revs their consolation.

The Quakes play their first midweek MLS game tomorrow night in Vancouver. The Quakes sit on 5 points and Vancouver have 7. If the Quakes can win they can leapfrog Vancouver in the standings in the West, as well as Chicago in the overall standings. The Quakes are going to be feeling good after their victory over Portland last week and hope it can propel them to some better form in the next weeks as the summer schedule begins.

It took 120 minutes, plus stoppage time, before a winner in this US Open Cup Qualifying Match could be determined. Ike Opara managed to squeeze a header, or necker if the stories are true, past a diving Perkins for the game winning goal.
Portland had 10 starters that did not start for them when they played Real Salt Lake over the weekend.

The Portland Timbers faced the San Jose Earthquakes in the second round play in match to qualify for the U.S. Open Cup tournament later this summer. The Timbers gave some of their youthful players a chance to show their skills in front of the home fans, and for almost 120 minutes they were up for the challenge.

Toronto FC hit the road to face San Jose Earthquakes and came away with their first away point this season. It wasn't always pretty, but there were some notable strong passages of play. Some of our new acquisitions are starting to show real promise on the pitch as well. Points away from home are few and far between for most MLS teams and TFC have always been poor on the road, but for some reason we seem to do well when we play away to San Jose.

With ESPN's Fantasy League having the odd rules of "roster set by Tuesday" there were several last-minute injuries that hurt people in MLS Fantasy Soccer this week. Locally the best example was Fredy Montero. Nationally the example was Charlie Davies going from likely starter (and goal scorer) to on the bench over the weekend.

Yesterday, March 3, the Earthquakes began the 12 week process of demolishing the old FMC building near the San Jose Norman Y. Mineta Airport that will become the site of the future stadium. To commemorate the occasion there was a little ceremony with members of the organization and city taking part.

The Quakes returned from their adventures in north London with an eye towards more lineup changes. They are negotiating with Tottenham to sign midfielder Simon Dawkins on a year long loan deal. Dawkins trained with the Quakes and the Tottenham reserves the last 2 weeks and even played for the Quakes in two of their exhibition games.

By AVI CREDITOR

After a rather quiet offseason in terms of player moves, the New York Red Bulls are reportedly close to making a big splash in the transfer market.

According to reports out of the Netherlands, the club has a two-year offer on the table to Ajax midfielder and Finland international Teemu Tainio (pictured above, left), who has fallen out of favor at the club and can be had on a free transfer.

Check it out below. This includes only the last college a player attended (if he attended more than one). It also counts the colleges of pro player who were drafted (which happened in the early days of the Superdraft).
UCLA 16 Maryland 11 Wake Forest 11 Virginia 10 Indiana 9 North Carolina 7 SMU 7 Clemson 6 Connecticut 6 Santa Clara 5 Duke 4 Portland 4 Stanford 4 Akron 3 California 3 Creighton 3 FIU 3 Notre Dame 3 Saint Louis 3 South Florida 3 UC Santa Barbara 3 Washington 3 William & Mary 3 Furman 2 San Jose State 2 South Carolina 2 UAB 2 UNC Charlotte 2 Belhaven 1 Boston College 1 Coastal Carolina 1 CS Dominguez 1 CS Fullerton 1 CS Northridge 1 Fordham 1 Fort Lewis 1 Fresno State 1 George Mason 1 Hartford 1 Lehigh 1 Lynn 1 Michigan 1 New Mexico 1 Ohio State 1 Old Dominion 1 Oregon State 1 Pasadena 1 Rutgers 1 San Diego 1 San Francisco 1 Seton Hall 1 Southern Conn State 1 Tampa 1 Tulsa 1 Virginia Tech 1 Wisconsin 1
none 14
This year, an astounding five Akron players have been signed through the Generation Adidas program.

TSG takes a pass at covering the MLS draft. Given the little information available on the players, with the minimal "staff" (and I use that word lightly since we have no real staff), TSG focuses on a little more in-depth pieces on more far-reaching material.

Only a little from TSG.